Machine guns were developed with the goal of expending great numbers of bullets in short periods of time. While this capability has tactical advantages in many scenarios, maximum rates of fire are not always desirable for a number of reasons. For instance, ammunition is heavy and the storage and transportation thereof can be unwieldy. An individual user tasked with operating a handheld machine gun with a high ammunition cycle rate must either limit their mobility by carrying a large amount of ammunition or limit their firing behavior to conserve ammunition. Additionally, as cycle rates increase, it becomes more difficult to maintain accuracy as each cycle has a jarring effect on the weapon and the user that affects aim and accuracy.
Many conventional machine guns are, therefore, team-operated weapons that are carried, fed, and operated by more than one operator. While a machine gun offers tactical advantages, the advantages are diminished by dedicating more than one individual to operating the machine gun. For example, a primary application of a machine gun in a squad is to provide suppression of the enemy and provide a mobility advantage to the operator's cohorts. A single operator further increases the mobility of the group. Furthermore, increasing cycle rates above 600 rounds per minute provides little additional suppression capability. In fact, lower cycle rates allow skilled operators to more precisely control the quantity of rounds fired with each trigger pull.